Migration and refugee crisis: more a global than a local challenge

Professor Jessen Petersen,
Dear students,
Ladies and gentlemen:

I am very happy to be back in Bologna. I have a lot of good memories from the time I spent here as a student and I am grateful that I have again been invited back for this occasion. Since my time at SAIS Bologna, I have been lucky to discover many countries across the world, living life as a migrant. And this is also the topic about which I want to talk to you today, namely the migrant and refugee crisis and why it is a global rather than a local challenge.

Last time, I mentioned here how important it is that we change the extraordinarily negative narrative that we are seeing across the world both in terms of economic migrants and refugees, particularly with respect to those of Muslim background. One year on, it looks like we are continuing to lose the grip on that narrative instead of changing it. Election victories of isolationist populists in various countries, some of whom are pandering to unacceptable xenophobic sentiments, are clear evidence of this trend.

In many of these countries, there is a sharp split between those supporting and those disagreeing with isolationist policies. But we, as an international organization, must stand above the resulting fragmentation and division in societies. Importantly, while standing up for the values of our organization, we must not blindly vilify or even ridicule those who have voted for populist political leaders opposing immigration. We are not a political party. As an organization defending and promoting the highest ethical values that pursues global goals, we need global support for our policies. This includes addressing the plight of millions of economic migrants and refugees who are facing extremely challenging conditions, but also listening and talking to those who are scared of the impact that migrants may have on them.

Let me expand a little bit on what the problem with the current narrative on migrants and refugees is, what that narrative should look like and how we can get there.

The first thing that is problematic with the narrative on refugees and migrants is that too often, no distinction is made between the two. All refugees are migrants in the sense that they cross an international border, but not all migrants are refugees. More importantly, economic migrants don’t have the same motives and protection needs as refugees. The primary objective of a refugee is to seek safety, and all the 144 parties to the 1951 refugee convention are obliged not to “expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his or her life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

The special need for protection distinguishes refugees from other migrants. We all have a humanitarian responsibility not to send refugees back whose life is in danger. Other migrants, who do not have refugee status, can be sent back to their country of origin under international law, so their situation is different. And let me stress that the number of refugees is not actually as daunting as it has been described by many. Most people use the larger number of over 65 million displaced including those displaced within a country when talking about refugees. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of refugees who have crossed an international border is about a third of that, 21,3 million. This certainly is not a small number, but it is just three to four million more than we’ve had on average from 1996 to 2012. Are we really saying that the world of seven billion people cannot deal with a few million more who are fleeing persecution?

We at the UN also have a responsibility when we use dramatic language to reflect the extreme humanitarian demands. The problem is that when clear distinctions are not made, the farmer in a small village thinks that 65 million people are heading his way. And when we fail to distinguish between migrants and refugees, others might actually think that 244 million are coming to take their jobs, since that is the total number of international migrants in the last statistics of 2015. All of us therefore have a responsibility to be precise and not contribute to the scare-mongering that some have ruthlessly exploited for political gains.

The problem with the current narrative is that it confronts individuals that have local perspectives and concerns with a global problem, without offering global solutions. The worker in a city suddenly sees himself confronted with millions of people on the move, many of them towards urban centres. He worries about rent going up, losing his job and pressures on his educational and health systems. And since nobody on the global level in his mind takes leadership in addressing the problem constructively, he turns to those who offer what sound like simple local remedies. Can we blame the worker? No! Can we do better? Yes – much better!

First of all, we have to create a fact-based narrative about migration and refugees, and secondly, we have to implement global solutions to better manage what is an intrinsically global challenge. This will require visionary leadership at all levels, locally, nationally and globally, to ensure a coherent response.

With respect to the story about migration, we need to deconstruct the myth that all refugees and all migrants are moving from the global South to the global North. In 2015, the six countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees were Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia and Jordan and this has not changed much this year. Even adding up the roughly 1 million refugees and other migrants that made their way to the EU in 2015, this still is just about 2 percent of the EU’s population. From this global perspective, the numbers seem much more manageable.

Looking at migration more broadly, while it is true that the largest percentage of migrants compared to general population are still in countries of the global north, South-South migration is growing faster. In 2015, 90.2 million international migrants born in developing countries resided in other countries in the Global South, while 85.3 million born in the South resided in countries in the Global North. So migration is not some sort of Tsunami that is hitting the North. It is a global phenomenon.

And then there is this idea that economic migrants are coming to take people’s jobs or, alternatively, that they come just to live off social security. Again, these are not totally irrational fears in times of high unemployment, economic uncertainty, increasing inequality and strained public finances. Economic migrants do travel in order to find work, and they will compete with locals for jobs. And even refugees will want a perspective in their host-country if they cannot return home quickly. But this is not a zero-sum equation. According to the International Labour Organization, migrants, especially migrant women, actually have higher labour force participation rates than non-migrants, defeating the “lazy immigrant” argument. And rather than taking away these jobs from “locals”, migration creates jobs. According to OECD research, migrants expand the domestic market and create a job for every one they occupy. When you add to this the fact that due to demographics, many economies in the global North actually need immigrants to keep growing, the narrative really doesn’t look all that negative anymore.

We need to get better at communicating these facts, including on social media. There is a two-way communications challenge due to new technologies: we need to ensure that those who want to migrate have accurate information about the reality in the country of destination and the journey. With 7.3 billion mobile phones, people can see what goes on elsewhere, but sometimes the picture is distorted and false hopes are created. And we need to better convey to those in host-communities that they stand to benefit from migration. But in order to be credible, we also need to address the legitimate concerns of individuals who remain worried.

The main concern by many remains that those coming in – refugees or economic migrants – are coming in an uncontrolled manner. And we have indeed seen surges where villages or parts of cities have seen stark increases in immigration that are hard to absorb by local infrastructure. The solution to this can only be an international one, as it involves people physically crossing borders. A global solution must include two main elements: first, better management of migration flows when and where they occur, adjusted to whether we are dealing with refugees or economic migrants, and second, more focus on conflict prevention and development to keep the numbers of refugees and economic migrants manageable. After all, if you are thinking that the current numbers are shocking, wait until climate change has really picked up pace and we start to see a new category of climate refugees emerging.

To improve the capacity of the international community to manage migration, an important step was made at last September’s summit in New York, where the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants was adopted. States decided that by 2018, new Global Compacts on refugees and migrants should be negotiated. The declaration describes some issues that apply to both refugees and all migrants such as the importance of ensuring a people-centred, sensitive, humane, dignified, gender-responsive and prompt reception for all persons arriving in new countries, and particularly those in large movements, whether refugees or migrants. Another important issue is the implementation of border control procedures in conformity with applicable obligations under international law, including international human rights law and international refugee law. Similarly, combating the exploitation, abuse and discrimination suffered by many refugees and migrants is highlighted in the declaration. And the collection of accurate information is another important priority among many others.

The New York Declaration also contains sections that distinguish between priority issues with respect to migrants and others more relevant to refugees. With regard to refugees, States committed to achieve a more equitable sharing of the burden and responsibility for hosting and supporting the world’s refugees. The declaration sets out a new approach through a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework which provides for a more comprehensive, predictable and sustainable response, based on the principles of solidarity, international cooperation and responsibility-sharing. This framework envisages a number of steps including engagement with a wide array of stakeholders, rapid and well-supported reception and admission measures, support for immediate and ongoing needs such as protection, health and education, as well as assistance to national and local institutions and communities receiving refugees.

The Compact on migrants that is envisaged, aims to deal with all aspects of international migration, including the humanitarian, developmental, human rights-related and other aspects. It will also build on other major frameworks that have recently been adopted by the international community, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development and the Declaration of the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development adopted in October 2013. It therefore has great potential to merge both more effective prevention through integration of humanitarian and development actors and better management of migration flows.

A number of conferences and meetings are being held in the coming months which will support the development of the Global Compacts. Just last week, we had a meeting in Geneva with various stakeholders and the facilitators of this process from New York. And next week, the Ninth Global Forum on Migration and Development will be held in Dhaka [Bangladesh], where governments will share their national, regional and global experiences in migration and development. Also in Geneva, the Human Rights Council will be presented with the Report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on progress in the development of principles and guidelines on the human rights protection of migrants in a vulnerable situation at its next session. As you can see, different aspects and perspectives are being considered in this inclusive process.

However, conferences and meetings alone are not going to resolve the issue. Different entities in the UN system continue to work on the ground. The UNHCR can launch an emergency operation for refugees within 72 hours, thanks to a global network of suppliers, specialist agencies and partners. In 2015, 11,175 metric tons of core relief items were delivered from the global stockpiles to assist people in emergencies.

You may also have heard that at the September Summit, the International Organization for Migration became a UN entity. Up to now, they had been a close partner but not formally a part of our system. This step enables a more integrated approach, helping to avoid duplication of work between the High Commissioner for Refugees, IOM and other humanitarian actors.

We are moving in the right direction, but we are not getting there fast enough. And with the current negative narrative on migration and refugees, there is a risk that the chaos that we have seen could get worse. Isolated responses within national boundaries may be a temporary fix, but in the long run they will only aggravate the situation. We need to rekindle global solidarity and shared responsibility. And we need to think and act preventively.

A clear sign of the need to prevent conflicts and be better prepared for disasters is the fact that the number of Internally Displaced Persons within countries continues to increase. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, an average of 66,000 people were displaced every day in 2015 by conflicts, violence and disasters. Usually people initially move to other places within their countries, where they know their surroundings and may have relatives or friends. Only when the situation becomes too unbearable, do they choose to, or are forced to flee across borders. This is when they become refugees or migrants.

Many UN entities with the relevant expertise provide aid to IDP’s to help them stay in their familiar surroundings and avoid the often dangerous journey across borders. The World Food Programme provides nutrition, UNHCR provides shelter and other support to millions of IDPs as we speak, UNICEF works to provide education and other humanitarian actors work together to alleviate the burden on infrastructure, health systems and other aspects when people suddenly move from one city or village to another. But even this support does not address the root causes of displacement. To do this, we need to strengthen our mediation and peacebuilding capacities and continue to promote sustainable development.

At the UN, we have become relatively good at early warning. Through an increased focus on human rights monitoring, our different agencies can identify potential risks for conflict, and we have a standby team of mediators whom we can send to support countries resolving conflicts before they turn violent. Similarly, our Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has helped many countries improve their preparedness for natural disasters. However, strained resources mean that we need to use these capacities as effectively as possible, and this requires a coherent and integrated approach across the system and across issues.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that the world agreed to a year ago presents us with an opportunity to take the path of integration and collaboration. It is the most comprehensive collective roadmap that the international community has ever agreed on. Its 17 goals touch on a lot of issues with relevance to migration including economic inequalities, urbanization and climate change to mention just a few. Through Goal 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies, the 2030 Agenda can also help to reduce the number of refugees fleeing conflict or persecution. Implementing this agenda by working horizontally across issues is our best bet to keep migration at manageable levels in the years to come. And everyone has a role to play as this is not just an agenda for developing countries. It applies to all countries and all individuals.

Dear students,

The response to the increase in the numbers of refugees and of migrants has not been effective. But we can do better. When I started my career at the UNHCR in Geneva, we were just coming to terms with the boat people crisis in South-East Asia, and we managed it much better after the initial struggles. There was more solidarity then. And we can restore this solidarity today. The path-breaking agreements on sustainable development, climate change and other issues have shown that the spirit of cooperation is still alive, and I am optimistic that we will develop strong Global Compacts on refugees and migration. Many of us here in this room are migrants, and all of us could be refugees one day. If we treat the current problems with empathy and generosity, we have a chance that the same will be applied when we may need it down the road.

But empathy and generosity alone will not be enough. We need true, determined and dedicated leadership at local, national and global levels to address and correct the distorted narrative on and inefficient management of refugee and migration flows. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the September Summit for Refugees and Migrants, the international community is showing the way forward. And our new Secretary-General with his background as the previous High Commissioner for Refugees brings the necessary know-how and leadership. These global efforts need to be substantiated and reinforced at the national and local level. In today’s world, we cannot separate local and global challenges. They have to be addressed hand in hand, and this means that all of us, including each one of you, have a role to play.

Thank you very much.